The OS soldier moved around the garage, directed to find a "HEALING BREAD" or so she thought she heard. She wondered where the bread was made since the bunker wasn't exactly homely. Then she wondered what it was made of for it to last the month or however long Valerie was trapped there. Just then she found it, in pristine condition despite the circumstances, and noticed it was arranged like a shrine to something...

Above the neatly arranged bread was a poster, no, banner adorned with the burly visage of one commander Olaf engaged in hand to hand combat with what looked like a two-headed shark amidst the roaring winds of a tornado, his beard and belly brandished dramatically against the elements, arms rippling with hair and muscles as they struck out against their foe.

Valerie has had access to supplies stored in the above shack, which sometimes included food or ingredients to supply her baking hobby. The Black Holes wouldn't notice if a few grains went missing here and there.

While Summer was confused for a few seconds, she was aware that official Blue Moon propaganda could sometimes be somewhat outlandish.

The closest thing I can find is that players can offer a point to counteract a compel they want to avoid but since that has not happened here, well, it would be up to discretion to accept it or not. On that note, players with no points must accept the next compel their character receives.

Counteract a compel? I think you got it backwards. You don't lose points from compels, you are given points for accepting them. They are the main way of gaining Fate points outside of milestone refreshments.

If there was a compel offered to you and you didn't like it you could just refuse it. You would only lose a FP in the sense that you don't get the one as a reward for accepting the compel.

Sounds like the FP has no purpose so I'm going to just reject it and move the game forward.

Sideslip is in effect. Enemies move at +1 initiative and can move+fire.

Summer eats the bread, which is surprisingly delicious. She almost forgets she is still in the middle of a battle zone and probably soon going to be dead. Summer loses one Stress point.

Bittman and Valerie wait in the corridor, tensed up and ready for anything. But no one appears from the ladder and no one sets off any traps. Perhaps the enemy suspects an ambush. Perhaps the continuing sound of gunfire from above indicates they are otherwise occupied.

Teddy is walking towards the motor pool area, when the guards stop him. "Halt, drone! State your business!" The guards (he can see three of them, but there are probably more amidst the buildings and vehicles in the loading area) point their weapons at him while eyeing him nervously. It seems they are on the edge now that one truck was stolen from under their noses.

Lad pushes pedal to the metal and drives the truck towards the gate, while the Black Hole soldiers keep firing at him.

Suddenly, he hears a louder, heavier machine gun from the behind. Bullet holes appear in the dash board and he feels a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Lad gains the Severe Consequence "Gunshot Wound".

The guards jump aside as the truck crashes through the gate and speeds into the distance.

Lad has escaped the conflict zone.

He won't be able to act until the rest of the battle has been resolved and the next chapter starts, but he got his freedom. But at what cost. What cost?

Yep yep yep yep yep yep... not gonna wait around for them to realize grenades are a thing. Gosh I've just been hankerin for some fresh air, the outside, yeah, yeah... yeah I'm gonna go. Yep! Bye! You should probably come with me but I understand if your professional soldier honour or whatever prevents it! I got none of that though! Bye!!

Valerie runs to the exit the group came from!

wisdom
"the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread" - anatole france

While eating the bread Summer heard Valerie panicking in the corridor. She peered through the doorway but the recruit had already stormed off. Bittman was shaking his head. Knowing their odds of survival were even worse if they were separated, Summer went to try reasoning with Valerie.

BITTMAN furrowed his brow and wondered how things would've gone if he had stormed the enemy HQ by himself. He was sure the mission would've been completed or he would've died heroically by now and not be stuck in a tunnel, but for as long as there were soldiers in his wake that did know the true meaning of valor he would stay his impulses.

Valerie and Summer had only just arrived in the command room when a deafening explosion shook the bunker around them. The room was filled with smoke, dust and panicking shouts coming from the opposite corner. Someone was firing a gun on full auto, the rounds hitting the ceiling and walls at random.

When the two regained their senses they saw soldiers in heavy armour pouring in through the tunnel entrance. Two of them were lying motionless on the floor, having triggered one of Valerie's traps.

There are 3 Power Armours in the Command Room.

Bittman guards the empty corridor bravely.

Teddy speaks to the guards. They continue to observe him suspiciously. "This area has been cordoned! No one moves in or out. That includes drones, toaster boy."

After you inquire about the truck one of the soldiers picks up a walkie-talkie. "Sir, we have a stray drone here asking questions. No I don't know where it came from. Instructions?"

Your situation analysis sub-routine begins warning you that sticking around might be unwise.

Combat Round 10

BTW forget what I said earlier about not being able to fire between zones in the bunker. You totally can! As long as the doors are not obstructed by enemies.

Also this is the 10th round and since everyone should have used one card and only one card each round and none of you used any before the combat started you should all have precisely one card left.

Teddy employs the stubborn machine act, pretending to inspect the target vehicle over the bewildered guards' protests before hopping in; on starting the truck it declares that this one is working, placating the onlookers, then it nonchalantly drives off.

"Fire in the hole!" An object falls down the ladder and hits the floor of the corridor, clattering and rolling around. Bittman recognises the fragmentation grenade and shouts: "Fear not, fair ladies! Bittman the Great shall be your shield!" Arms outstretched, he throws his massive body over the grenade just before it explodes, absorbing the brunt of the explosion and heroically saving everyone else in the room, never mind that there was no one else in the room.

Bittman is dead.

The elite Black Hole infantry just keeps pouring in through the door. Even though Summer and Valerie give it their best, the enemies are just too many and eventually they must succumb to the hail of bullets.

Summer and Valerie are dead.

Adder steps out of the shadows and presses a button on a remote. Teddy goes limp, with the word "TILT" flashing on his faceplate in big red letters.

Teddy is... dead?

Time's up. The errant player did not show up. Everyone died. Mysterious Lad is the only survivor.

Roll call. Who is still interested in playing? If there is still a group I am not opposed to starting a Chapter 3, though we'll probably switch to a different system that does not require people to think about fate points or aspects or other nonsense.

By harshly being shut down on the innocent looking cynical kid route(by understandably failing to impress a sociopathic soldier), half freezing to death soon after, and then getting a plot coupon to escape with a gunshot wound.

In hindsight this chapter was to complex for the usual WWN style of doing things combined with not really getting the rules. Perhaps Nart should have warned them a few times you all ignored stealth in that doing this the reckless way was impossible. The card system was also a utter faillure: all it did was goad players to take risky actions thinking their high roll picks would carry the day. They didn't, and even if it did, the scope of the situation wasn't altered at all. Nart seems to have ran some hidden calcs, I would like to see them. A advantage of random rolls is that it encourages thinking about the risks more. With AW you usually attack based on the given damage range, and perhaps just about 3% more as a acceptable gamble in some cases. It's probably the same with this.

I think nobody cared that much after the battle had begun with no plan in sight but.. as I said a few weeks ago, this was painful to read.

This was in no way impossible. In fact you all still had a very good chance of escaping alive (but no can do if nobody's playing) All you needed to do at this point was walk through the east gate - you already had one vehicle outside the map.

From my perspective the card system worked well - it allowed me to run the game much faster instead of having to go back and forth requesting rolls every time someone got shot at. I don't want to even imagine how slow that could have been. Yes, there were "hidden calculations" and that wasn't even a secret - all the cards do is determine your amount of re-rolls but each roll is still using dice the normal Fate way. My hope was that the cards would be a sufficient psychological substitute for rolling your own dice in addition to the tactical element of timing their use. The cards are one thing I would like to carry over to whatever system we may still use (if we're still playing)

I could post a log of the dice rolls (if I can find them. I re-installed an OS a couple of times and may have lost some of the logs)

Bottom line is, I'm still not sure what was so difficult about this. It was supposed to be simple - get Lad free (optional), get the fuel, escape.

My original intention was that the beginning of the chapter would have consisted of the party poking around in the abandoned bunker uncovering clues about what happened and discovering stuff like Rudolph on their own. But since I came up with the idea of having Valerie be found in the bunker I realised there was no reason she wouldn't already know everything worth knowing about the place and simply tell the party. This allowed me to skip that part by means of good ole infodumping and get to the exciting stuff faster. I expected the party to be found out and having to fight their way out but it wasn't supposed to be right at the beginning.

I guess it was pk's intention that Lad and HPD could pass the time by RP'ing with each other until the rest of the party would get around to rescue them. Of course it didn't quite work that way. It's usually a bad idea to separate the party in an RPG like this since it almost always results in someone getting bored as the GM can't give everyone equal love and attention and certain things need to happen at a certain order and pace.

So, understandably Lad was getting impatient and wanted to leave the prison. I couldn't let him escape too easily, though, since the idea was the rest of the party would rescue him (probably when the guards would take him outside to transport him somewhere) Escaping confinement in a military complex all by yourself shouldn't be exactly easy anyway.

Lad using the Fate point to set off the alarm was however something I did not expect, but I'm not one to refuse a fate point when it makes so much sense.

Things were still going pretty fine though all things considered. Especially since Teddy managed to enter the central building - I hadn't planned for anyone to actually go inside there, but a disguised drone getting through unnoticed seemed plausible enough. I thought you already had it in the bag - all you needed to do was to search the building and get the gas canister (the central building and the motor pool were the two places where you could find gas). Only you gave up only after one turn of searching and decided to go to the roof instead - for what reason? Oh yes, the antenna.

Again I had not planned the radio to be important but I figured I could let you call in some reinforcements - maybe there were some rebels hiding in the nearby forests who could answer to Valerie's plea for help (assuming that's what she was planning). There wouldn't have been enough of them to take over the depot of course, but they could have provided a useful diversion. Only you then decided to abandon this course of action as well. (genuinely I thought "what the hell" at this point)

Lad's plan to sneak into the motor pool to steal a truck seemed daring, but it also was sensibly executed and some good fate point usage oiled the wheels enough to seal the deal. Overall Lad was the one player who consistently role-played and made sensible decisions. It's no coincidence he got away. He also helped the rest of the party by diverting the enemy's attention - literally the enemies were doing nothing but trying to stop Lad for those turns and the other players could have used that to their advantage and escaped. Could have.

Teddy's idea to emulate Lad may have been pragmatic but it also was rather boring I thought so I wouldn't let that happen - it wouldn't make sense for the guards to let him there anyway right after a truck was stolen from under their noses.

But yeah maybe I'm too used to playing with experienced groups where everyone plans and strategises every move and I made things too complex and (seemingly) difficult. Maybe a "behind the enemy lines" scenario isn't the best fit for this group.